Congolese
President Joseph Kabila was in Brussels on Monday as part of a four-nation
European tour. But as he seeks financial and political backing here, Belgian
troops are already on the ground in Congo helping to train the country's new
army. Katleen Maes and Khaled Diab investigate the still strong ties between
Belgium and its former colony.

February
2004

Kabila junior – who inherited the presidency
following the assassination of his father, Laurent-Désiré, in 2001 – is
undertaking his first tour of European capitals as the leader of the Democratic
Republic of the Congo's power-sharing transitional government that was formed
last year.

Following visits to Paris, Berlin and London,
DRC's young leader was due to arrive in Brussels on Monday for a three-day
visit during which he will meet Belgian and EU leaders. Kabila is seeking
European financial and political backing for his mineral-rich country's ongoing
peace process, as well as investments by European businesses. “Circumstances
have considerably improved with the return of peace, stability, the
reunification of the national territory, and the setting up of transitional
institutions,” Kabila told business leaders in Paris last week.

Many European leaders are cautiously hopeful
that the younger Kabila can draw a line under five years of conflict – in what
has been described as Africa's First World War – that have left some three
million people dead, finally setting his nation on the path to peace and
prosperity. “We are confident in the willingness and ability of the
transitional government to lead the country toward sovereignty, development and
democracy,” French President Jacques Chirac said following a meeting with his
Congolese counterpart.

Kabila's three-year rule has already led to
neighbouring countries pulling out their armies from DRC or reducing their
support for rebel factions. Transitional institutions – including a
Belgian-backed unified army – have been set up and rebel groups began sharing
power with Kinshasa in an interim government formed last year on the back of
the hard-won Pretoria peace accords struck in 2002. As part of this so-called
Intercongolese Dialogue, the country is now supposed to go through a period of
reconciliation and institution building, which should culminate in free
elections in 2005.

Hard road to peace

With years of war, millions dead and the rule
of two oppressive dictators – whose abuses led Belgium, and then other EU
member states, to stop all direct aid in 1991 – to contend with, the healing
process is proving to be long and painful. Ethnic fighting drags on in the
northeastern part of the country. MONUC, the French-dominated UN force, has
managed to restore some form of stability and bring a stop to the worst
atrocities in the Ituri region.

The obstacles on the road to peace have led to
massive delays in the transitional and reunification processes and many
observers worry that Congo will not be ready for real democratic elections next
year, partly due to a lack the funding, logistical support and more importantly
an open environment. The young interim president has been trying to assure
European leaders that, despite the delays, he and his country are on track for
2005. “There hasn't been any major crisis, and there won't be one,” he vowed.
“The transition will run its course.”

Some critics have accused Kabila of embarking
on this European tour merely to launch his 2005 election battle to extend his
interim rule. This does not sit easy with former rebels-turned-ministers who
claim that he is an autocratic ruler.

Brothers in arms

Despite such criticisms, European leaders
decided to throw in their lot with Kabila junior. Following his father's death,
the EU – following the intense lobbying of Belgium – rekindled its interest in
DRC. Only three months after Kabila took centre stage, European Development
Commissioner Poul Nielson freed up €120 million in frozen EU subsidies. Belgian
aid to its former colony rose from €22.8 million in 1999 to €44.4 million in
2002.

Late last year, Kabila invited the Belgian
armed forces to play a leading role in training and supplying DRC's new unified
army – which brings together former foes from rebel factions and government
forces. After receiving UN clearance, Belgian defence minister André Flahaut
gave the green light saying that, “a country without an army will have no
stability”. He personally dropped off 190 of his finest officers in the beehive
of the Oriental Province.

In the coming six months, they will train
approximately 3,500 troops to undertake peacekeeping missions. The force will
be split equally between former government soldiers, Rwandan-backed RCD-Goma
rebels and Ugandan-backed MLC rebels, as well as representatives from several
formerly warring tribes. Once the Congolese recruits have completed their
training, they will reinforce the 4,500 MONUC troops in the Ituri region and
help gradually to re-establish government control in the region.

Although Belgium has agreed to lead the
training mission, it has been a staunch opponent of contributing troops to the UN
peacekeeping mission in DRC. This is partly out of a recognition that its
colonial past in the country might bring up some uncomfortable – if
unintentional – associations, and lead to the targeting of its peacekeepers, as
occurred in Rwanda in 1994 where 10 Belgian blue berets were killed. This
precipitated the withdrawal of UN troops leaving the subsequent genocide to go
unchecked.

Since the beginning of the 1990s, Belgian
policy has been to play what it sees as a more productive role: providing
logistical support for international missions and to use its African expertise
for humanitarian purposes. Belgium focuses its development and aid programme on
countries with which it enjoys extensive ties – 13 of its 18 partner countries
are African – and which often have large immigrant communities living here,
such as Morocco and several central African states. The second distinctive
pillar in Belgian foreign policy books is the promotion of human rights and
peace through education.

If this initial mission is a success, it might
increase Belgium's appetite for this kind of intervention. Foreign Minister
Louis Michel has already hinted that the training mission might take on a
longer-term form. "We could envision going further," he admitted,
underlining that “other countries should complete the puzzle when they see the
Belgian approach is a success.” This strategy – which focuses on building
self-help capacity – seems to make sense because it builds a multi-ethnic and
indigenous peace keeping infrastructure.

Since Kabila junior's rise to power, Belgium
has seen a window of opportunity to stem the bloodshed in its former colony. It
has capitalised on its strong historic ties with DRC and its position in Europe
to advance Congo's stalling peace train. A peaceful and prosperous Congo is not
only good for its people but it is good for Belgium's political and economic
standing in the region.

This article appeared on Expatica in February 2004. ã2004 Katleen Maes and Khaled Diab.

ã2004 K. Diab. Unless otherwise stated, all the content on this website
is the copyrightof Khaled Diab.